Captured By The Dragon
Episode 89

Patara

I didn’t know what to say or do. I tried to call to him, but my voice faded as the hunters tried to fight Ethan. He darted left and right faster than I had ever seen someone move. I saw the starting of fire in his hands as he tackled another man to the ground. The scent of burning flesh filled the air.

“Ethan, no! That’s enough!”

He didn’t stop, tackling the last man that came through the room and tearing him apart.

Then we were alone with nothing but the sounds of the forest outside and the smell of b***d. Ethan remained leaning over the last man he’d killed panting. I stared at him in shock.

How could the little boy that jumped at nearly every sound have killed all these trained hunters like this? They had barely gotten off a few shots.

They hadn’t hit Ethan, but even that made no sense. He was just a boy.

He stood and turned. His eyes were glowing amber and slitted like the eyes of a dragon. His claws started to shrink back into his normal hands. B***d dripped from his hands and slid down his face as he looked at me.

His eyes turned glossy and he ran to me, throwing his arms around me and sobbing.

“Mom no gone! Mom no gone!”

Mom.

He called me mom.

I smiled, blocking out the scent of b***d and pressing him against my chest, sitting in the center of the room and stroking his hair as he cried.

I heard the sound of trucks. Ethan went still before slumping in my arms.

“Patara!” I heard Dylan’s voice call. “Ethan!”

I swallowed as he came through the door. His eyes glowing, his claws out and his teeth bared. He was prepared for a fight, but he froze in the doorway and looked around. As I focused on him, the scent of b***d and burning flesh came back to me. Ethan continued to tremble in my arms. Dylan met my gaze then he looked around.

His claws vanished as he stepped into the room. His eyes lost their glow and he crossed the room slowly.

“Dad,” Ethan sobbed, curling into me. “Dad… Protect Mom. Ethan protect Mom.”

Dylan stiffened. His eyes turned dark and sad as he kneeled in a puddle of b***d in front of me.

“Yes,” Dylan said. “You did.”

Ethan wrapped his arms around my neck, trembling, “Not gone. No gone. Mom stay. Mom stay.”

My eyes burned and I squeezed him close, laying my cheek on top of his head.

“Of course, Ethan. I’m your mom and I’ve only ever wanted to stay.”

Dylan met my gaze, his eyes watering before he drew closer and pulled us both into his arms.

“I love you, Patara.”

“I love you too.”

“I love you, Ethan.”

“Ethan. Dad. Mom.”

“Yeah,” I said. “We’re a family.”

The rest of the people Dylan usually went out with came in. Dylan got us out of the room and into a bathroom to clean up before taking us out and putting us into a car.

“The tiger king told them where to find this place,” Dylan said. “I can only guess that means it’s no longer safe at all.”

“What do we do now?”

He chuckled, “We go to another safe house. One he doesn’t know about… And I turn my sights on the human side.”

He sighed as Ethan curled up against me, dozing off.

“It would have been nice to be able to interrogate them, but we’ll see what we can gather from their cars about what the full plan is.”

He turned to look at me, “Do you know why they would have been sent here to get you?”

My eyes widened, “Me?”

He nodded, “They mentioned Malcolm and you over the radio. Said they had orders to bring you back alive.”

I licked my lips and thought about it. The most obvious answer was my parents, but my mother had made it clear how she felt about my decision. Maybe it was my dad. Maybe they had worked out some deal with Malcolm before he died for me.

Maybe the human government just wanted to study me since I had Dylan’s son.

I shuddered at the thought, “If I had to guess, it has something to do with my parents, but I’m not sure.”

Dylan nodded, “We’ll get settled in for the night and then plan our next moves.”

“Will you have to fight the hunters head on? It’s… It’s one thing to fight other shifters with some anti-shifter weaponry but it’s something else to fight hunters.”

Dylan’s lips twitched, “They started this fight, Patara. What else would you have me do?”

I didn’t know, but it all seemed so dangerous. Too dangerous.

It was days after the attack on the house that Dylan came to me with his decision. They were going to sneak across the border and attack the weapons factory just inside the border.

“This doesn’t feel like a good idea.”

“Why?”

“No one knows where the factory is,” I told him. “Except the hunters and the government. Don’t you think it’s strange that you found out so easily?”

Dylan frowned, “You think it’s a trap.”

I nodded, “There’s no other explanation.”

“You think it’s a trap for me?”

I looked at him. “You killed the tiger king… Even though they don’t know that, they were planning for him to be dead and that other place. You’re… the biggest threat.”

He smirked, “I am.”

He eyed me, “What do you suggest then?”

“Let me go.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I can at least try to talk to my parents. If they planned on kidnapping me anyway then they probably want me for something…” I sighed, “At the least, you’d have a chance to sneak in and find out what’s actually going on.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I’m not risking your life like that.”

“The war is going to continue if something isn’t done.” I shuddered. “So many innocent people will be killed.”

“I agree.” He stood, “That’s why I’m going to take your advice into consideration. If it’s a trap, then it’s best not to walk into it. We’ll do some more reconnaissance, but you aren’t going over there if I can help it.”

“And if you can’t?”

He stiffened, “Are you saying you plan to go anyway?”

“I’m saying they found us once. What’s to stop them from finding us again?”

He seemed shocked as if the thought had never occurred to him.

“What are your thoughts then, Patara?”

I was shocked. I don’t remember him really asking my opinion about something so big before.

“I think… if you can get most of the humans to see that you’re… not like the other shifters, it would go a long way towards making it easier to get peace.”

Humans were told such horrible things about shifters and how they treated human women, but Dylan was nothing like that. If more humans could see that, I think it would be easier to get there to be peace.

I couldn’t help him with shifter problems, but I know enough about human problems.

If my mom had been able to see Ethan as her grandson instead of as just an evil shifter, she would have never done what she did.

“What do you suggest? Walking over there unarmed and telling them I come in peace?”

My lips twitched, “I don’t think so, but… can’t you send a message. A teleconference or something? Didn’t the tiger king send a big message to all shifters?”

He hummed thoughtfully and smiled, “That’s… not a bad idea.”